Good stuff: Fresh tomato sauce, cooked and frozen Conserva di pomodori (homemade tomato paste), salted and oil-topped in fridge, no-salt in freezer Sundried tomatoes Bruschetta in a jar (only make one recipe though, we won’t eat it fast enough) Basil pesto, frozen (trade/give away most of it, we eat it but produce far more than […]

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Here in southern California, apple season has just hit full stride. We don’t have any apple trees at our place, so we hauled ourselves off to Julian this past weekend. Ah, Julian. A picturesque town in the mountains, known for Girl Scout camps, Boy Scout camps, church camps — did we mention camping? — and […]

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I haven’t made jam since … eesh. Before Christmas. (That batch was quince. Ah, gorgeous quince, but that’s not today’s post!) I’ve been busy and kinda run-down. Doing better, so I made jam today. How do you detect a perfectly ripe Bartlett pear? It should be a warm just-turned-yellow color with speckles, and deliciously fragrant. […]

In January 2010, I planted, on the advice of my nursery-man, four little sticks. In the intervening year and a half, I’ve learned a reasonable amount about said little sticks, and I’m going to share it now. (: I am pretty sure that ‘long around September I’m going to have an addendum to this post […]

I found this recipe on the ‘net a while back while I was looking for pickle recipes. During the summer, I had lemon cucumbers coming out my ears. And Uncle Pasto’s ears. And anyone who stepped in the house’s ears. For future reference: you only need one lemon cucumber plant for a family of two. […]

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… make tomato jam! I have a plethora of tomatoes still from my yard. Not sure how many more I’ll get after the scorching heat over the past two days and then thunderstorms and rain today, but that’s OK. I’ve already made tomato puree and salsa and wing sauce, so, acting on my Mom’s suggestion […]

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I’ll admit, I crashed out over the weekend. I was so tired. I took naps. Repeatedly. I don’t do that. But when Labor Day itself finally rolled around, I had enough energy and to spare, so while Uncle Pasto was barbecuing some fabulous smoked brisket, I spent most of the day working on the garden. […]

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We had a fabulous time in gorgeous scenic Utah, and I want to blog about that later. But I’ve been crazy-busy managing the yard since we got back, and putting up some pickles (four POUNDS of lemon cucumbers, I ask you … ), and haven’t had time to blog yet. So this is just a […]

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Along about yesterday, my good buddy Kristina came over with a big pile of white peaches from her yard. Kristina lives in Fallbrook, and she and her family have this fabulous yard full of citrus trees, avocados, and stone fruit. Every once in a while, she asks me if I want some. Do I ever?! […]

I mentioned that my garden exploded. What I didn’t mention was the ugly batch of blossom-end rot that came along with it. /: It seems that especially the hybrid tomatoes are bearing so heavily that they can’t get enough calcium, even with supplementing and with plenty of water. My nursery guy suggested that I thin […]